IMG bolsters esports portfolio with PGL partnership

IMG bolsters esports portfolio with PGL partnership

The IMG agency has furthered its interest in esports by agreeing a global media rights partnership with events and production company PGL.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but IMG will represent the company in selling the global media rights for its portfolio of events around the world.

PGL, which was formed in 2002, has organised more than 50 events in the last five years, producing content for both national and international audiences.

Silviu Stroie, chief executive of PGL, said: “As the PGL global reach grows, so does our brand. IMG is an invaluable partner in making sure that our events and our stories find the right audiences across the world. We are excited to continue our work with IMG and push esports more and more into the mainstream, where it belongs.”

During 2018, PGL has seven top events scheduled, including two Dota2 Majors, each with a prize pool of $1m (€818,000). The Bucharest Major is attended by in excess of 25,000 people over four days with an online audience of over five million unique plays and over 30 million video plays.

In addition, PGL is producing two PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds Series events, which recently recorded the most concurrent players on digital distribution platform Steam at more than three million users. Also within PGL’s events are the CS:GO Invitationals.

IMG has been involved in esports distribution since the inception of Eleague, a joint venture with US media group Turner, and has already worked with PGL through distributing the PGL CS:GO Krakow Major in 2017 to 15 networks and more than 75 countries.